Across the Rhine: JanuaryMay 1945 [Hardcover]

The last rites were administered to the Third Reich from the west by a massive concentration of Allied forces and firepower. With France secured, Hitlers vain counterattack in the Ardennes held and the Channel and North Sea ports cleared, little stood in the way of the Allies other than the dominant geographical feature of western Europe: the mighty Rhine River stretching from the North Sea almost to Switzerland.In the north, the 21st Army Group executed one of the largest operations of the war: a huge airdrop backed up by an amphibious crossing that made full use of 79th Armoured Divisions specialized armor including the Alligators of 4th Royal Tank Regiment. Further south, until it collapsed under the pressure, the Ludendorff Bridge, captured intact at Remagen allowed US First Army to create a bridgehead. They would use it to good effect, wheeling north to surround the Ruhr, Germanys industrial heartland. Further south, where the river was narrower, Pattons Third Army vaulted the Rhine with its customary elan, as did Devers Sixth Army Group.Ahead of the Allies were the remains of the German forces, often no more than Volkssturm or Hitlerjugend, determined to resist for as long as possible so that their Fuhrer had time to unleash his super weapons. In the end, these proved figments of Hitlers imagination and the defenders crumbled in the face of units that, after nine months of training, had become deadly proponents of the art of aggressive warfare with modern equipment  such as the M26 Pershing and Comet  being rushed to the front in the hope it could see action before the war finished.Heavily illustrated title covering the advance of the US, Canadian and British Armies west into Germany in 1945.Published in time for the 75th anniversary of the crossing of the RhineMarch 22, 2020.Fully illustrated with both period and modern photography.Penultimate book in a series covering the fighting in Western Europe from D-Day to the fall of Berlin. ...lavishly illulC&